Blog-post

The world has evolved from information-savvy to techno-knowledge savvy, making things accessible to the citizens of rustic areas on fingertips. Following this track of evolution, concepts like; Digital India, e-Governance and Citizen Services have grown leap and bounds. Today, where UK and other developed countries such as; US and China have witnessed a phenomenal impact in marshalling various frontline services for health care and education in public accountability, India also stands no far in the pursuit of executing these programs by upgrading 100 plus cities in rendering bunches of citizen services across different states. In spite the agenda of ‘Digital India’ was unveiled in the country after several technological try-outs; it took this programme very short span of time to become an eminent way of bridging citizens -government space electronically.

Plunging in to the irony of India, majority of population in the country inhabits in the rural areas, which raises the need of availing citizen services in these localities to a large extent. On the hand, there is no denying of the fact that, the percentage of people accessing to the Internet in India has also increased considerably, empowering the rural entrepreneurs in sheer capitalization of the local resources efficiently. Hence, be it seamless access to the government information or hassle-free serviceability to the people of far-flung localities, a perfect blend of Digital India and e-Governance programme has made the entire model more synchronised, smart and result-driven in the said provision.

Ages back when the concept of citizen service and Digital India was in its initial phase, establishing a better communication between citizens and government was never this seamless. It took ample of challenges for the government to come across and get this dream introduced. Some of the major challenges faced by the government during this initiative encompass; pitiable infrastructure, varied languages, lack of awareness, resistance to change, IT literacy and the electricity access. Even today, rural citizens are not fully aware of technological advancement and its flexible utilities, which often hold them back from availing many other facilities conveniently. Government thus felt the need of prevailing over these issues in those areas first, and build a basic awareness programme amongst the rural citizens. Thus, it can be said that in order to transform a smart city into a smart nation, state governments need to take up a uniformed framework, which should be economically and socially apt for a sustainable urbanisation and developing trust amongst the citizens.

In the spectrum of e-Governance; an accountable, transparent and integrity in administration is always obligatory, and this can best be witnessed in the state of Punjab where, citizens were empowered to avail various cost-effective government services effortlessly without running pillar to post.  Citizen services can facilitate the people of a nation in multiple ways. Some of the commonly services rendered under this schema include; utility bill payment, issuance and renewal of passport, Adhaar card enrolment, tax collection, registration of birth certificate, transportation pass, documentation of banking and many more. In order to make these services accessible to the people with ease, different agencies are further authorised by the government, allowing them to establish small counters or kendras in nearby localities to get these services offered. Besides rendering ample of utility services to different age group people, the e-Governance model also supports the livelihood of citizens by creating employment opportunities in the province.

Experiencing a flourishing performance in the state of Punjab; other states governments are also teaming up in developing the citizen-centric model in the states like; Odisha, Maharashtra, Manipur and Gujarat. Not only this; to deliberate upon such projects and Smart Cities Mission, going further, France and India are likely to achieve their shared vision for a sustainable future on information, communication and technology. Since a good governance relates to upholding the legal rights of all citizens, the initiatives thus, has to be more result driven, transparent, secured and law abiding that would actually bridge the gap between citizens and government electronically.